Bill Mantlo

William Timothy "Bill" Mantlo was born November 9, 1951 in
Brooklyn. He was the oldest of three boys born to William W. and Nancy
Mantlo. As a boy, Bill Mantlo was very much into comic books. In
fact, he was a big fan of DC superheroes until he discovered
Amazing Spider-Man #4 on the stands one day in 1962. After that,
he was a confirmed Marvel fan until the mid- to late '60s.

Mantlo's interest in comic book art led him to attending the
High School of Art & Design in Manhattan. After graduating, he
enrolled in the Cooper Union School of Art, also in Manhattan,
whereupon he completely dropped comics and his interests changed to
painting and photography.

Following his graduation from Cooper, Mantlo held various civil
servant positions and worked as a portrait photographer. Then an old
college friend called asking if he'd be interested in a position in
Marvel's production department. Although he'd stopped buying comics
years prior, he took the job.

In 1974, editor Tony Isabella had to hastily plot a Sons of the
Tiger story for Deadly Hands of Kung Fu in order to get it to
then-newcomer artist George Pérez. Isabella was unable to
find a writer with time to script it, so Mantlo volunteered. This
led to a permanent writing position on Deadly Hands.

Shortly after this, new editor-in-chief Marv Wolfman instituted
a policy to avoid the missed deadlines plaguing Marvel. Titles in
danger of missing their deadlines would have fill-in stories written,
primarily by Mantlo. If the regular writer met the deadline, Mantlo's
fill-in story would not be used. Many of Mantlo's story did end up
being used and Mantlo quickly became the fill-in king, creating
stories under very tight deadlines.

Mantlo also began being assigned other titles, but primarily on the
fringes of the Marvel Universe and many already close to cancellation.
Then Mantlo got assigned to Marvel Team-Up. This also marked
his first collaboration with Sal Buscema, one that continued through
many more issues of Marvel Team-Up.

Mantlo went on to work on Iron Man and Peter Parker, the
Spectacular Spider-Man. He also was assigned several licensed
properties, including The Human Fly, Man from Atlantis,
and The Micronauts, which was a project he proposed.

Then Marvel editor-in-chief Jim Shooter brought Mantlo in as writer
for Rom. After viewing the promotional video created by
Parker Brothers, Mantlo began writing a proposal which he himself
later said "was f***ed up." Shooter rejected it and wound up plotting
the first issue himself. Mantlo continued through the first four
issues generally disliking it and believing the series had no
chance.

Mantlo later began to see its potential thanks to editor Jo Duffy.
After a guest appearance by the X-Men in Rom #17-18, Mantlo was
amazed at the letters Marvel got saying people were going to check out
that title because of what they read in Rom. Buscema also
began getting excited about the title and the two began greater
collaboration.

After starting on Rom, Mantlo and Buscema also began working
together on Hulk. Both collaborations later ended with Buscema
leaving. He cited the two butting heads more often. He was also
growing tired of Rom and wanted to work on different material.

As Rom was winding down, Mantlo began working on Cloak &
Dagger and his creator-owned project, Swords of the
Swashbucklers, plus numerous limited series starring a variety
of characters, some of which he co-created, like Rocket Raccoon
and Jack of Hearts.

Meanwhile, Mantlo was also finding himself butting heads with
Shooter. Mantlo even tried, unsucessfully, to organize Marvel's
writers into a union due to some of the injustices he perceived. This
eventually led him to get a law degree. Meanwhile, Shooter slowly
cut the number of titles Mantlo wrote. Eventually Shooter was
dismissed, but Mantlo found Marvel now full of editors he didn't know
and still had trouble getting work. After getting a single job for
DC, Mantlo left the comic book industry to work full time as a public
defender in New York City.

On July 17, 1992, Mantlo, an avid rollerblader, was rollerblading
home when he was struck by a car. Mantlo was not wearing a helmet.
His head hit the car's windshield before he fell to the street. The
car driver fled. Mantlo suffered closed-head traumatic brain injury.
After emergency surgery, he was comatose for two weeks. When he
recovered, he still knew his friends, family, and himself. After
years of therapy, however, it was determined he would never fully
recover. Mantlo has since regressed and now lives in Queens Nassau
Nursing Home where he must have 24-hour assistance.

Mantlo's care has long since used up his health insurance. In 2007
David Yurkovich published a biography entitled, Mantlo:
A Life in Comics to help raise funds for Mantlo's care. In
addition, Floating World Comics has sponsored two events called Spacenight:
A Tribute to Bill Mantlo, an art show made (almost) entirely of
various artist's interpretations of Rom, to help raise funds.

Those wishing to make direct donations may send them to Bill's
brother Michael.

Mike Mantlo
26364 East Pintail Road
Long Neck, DE 19966

Created: 13 Jan 2000; last updated: 17 Jul 2012
Web site design and contents are copyright 1996-2011
Lee K. Seitz
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All Marvel characters and the distinctive likeness(es) thereof are
Trademarks & Copyright (c) 1941-2011 Marvel Characters, Inc. and used
without permission. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
ROM was a trademark and is copyright 1979 Parker
Brothers (now a brand of Hasbro) and used without permission.